We Ain't Born Typical
by OptimisticallyOrdinary
Summary: Joni isn't a fighter. She's just drifting through life, moving from purpose to purpose, and not really looking for anything. Maybe that's why she's so surprised when she finds a reason to fight after years of simply surviving.
1. Trust Your Instincts

**Okay, first story! This is going to be an eventual Logan/OC romance, but there's a few things that need to be covered first. This story is going to cover everything from** _ **X-Men: First Class**_ **to** _ **X-Men United**_ **, but there are going to be changes throughout. This first chapter is a little short since I'm just starting out, but I'm going to try to make future chapters a little longer.**

 **This chapter takes place at the beginning of** _ **First Class.**_ **The main OC's name is Joni, and it's pronounced like Johnny.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE  
** **TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS**

 **1962**

"Heads up, we're not alone," Finn whispers and then leans back in her diner seat. Joni props her elbows on top of the table, on either side of her breakfast plate, and quickly scans the room. Nothing looks out of the ordinary. There's a family of four sitting behind her, she can hear the kids laughing while the parents try to get them to eat, and a couple of old timers are gossiping with the waitress at the bar. At the other end of the bar, closest to the front door, two men are sitting side-by-side and talking quietly in between sips of their drinks.

" _Don't see nothing suspicious. I think you're getting paranoid in your old age,"_ Joni thinks while looking straight into her sister's angry brown eyes.

" _Looks can be deceiving, as I'm sure you already know."_ Joni is used to hearing a voice other than her own inside her mind, it's expected when your sister is a telepath, but that wasn't Finn. It was a man's voice, a different accent than the southern one she shares with her sister, and she's guessing that Finn heard him too because her eyes are wide and she looks ready to hit something.

"Mind if we join you, ladies?" Joni and Finn look up at the same time, and the two younger men from the bar are standing next to their table. The one who just spoke out loud, the one standing next to Joni, isn't the same one who spoke into her mind. The accent is different.

"If we say no?" Finn asks. Finn distrusts strangers , and Joni doesn't blame her. Finn knows more about people than Joni would ever want to.

"Then we will leave you in peace," the other man says. That's the voice she heard. He must be another telepath. Joni's never met another telepath before.

"Take a seat," Joni decides and scoots over. She hears Finn huff as she does the same, and the two men smoothly slide into the booth to sit next to them.

"My name is Charles Xavier," the man sitting next to Finn says first. He looks normal enough. Brown hair, very blue eyes, early twenties maybe. The telepath had been right though. Joni knows that looks can be deceiving.

"Erik Lehnsherr," the man sitting next to Joni says. She turns in the booth so that her back is against the wall, so that she can see all three people now packed into their booth, and the man sitting next to her looks normal as well. His brown hair has a little more red in it, his blue eyes are a little icier, but he looks to be close to the same age as the other man. While Joni is cataloging all of this new information, Erik turns and meets her gaze directly. "It's your turn to introduce yourself."

"Doesn't he already know everything about us?" Joni asks. She keeps her eyes locked with Erik's as she inclines her head towards Charles, and Erik's lips tilt in a barely-there smile.

"That would be very impolite and rude of me." There's a hint of humor in Charles's voice, so Joni breaks her little staring contest with Erik to look over at him.

"My name is Joni McKenzie, and this is my sister Finn. Why are you here bothering us?" Joni asks as pleasantly as possible. Her and Finn don't always spend a lot of time together, so she's not exactly happy that they're being interrupted.

"Well, it's quite complicated, you see and-"

"Skip to the part where you tell us what you want," Joni interrupts. She can see Finn starting to fidget , so she knows her sister is starting to feel crowded. Cornered. Overwhelmed.

From there, the two men speak quickly. Something about recruiting mutants to help the CIA take down a group of mutants that are up to no good. When some details are mentioned, like the name Sebastian Shaw, Finn flinches. Something about this mission of theirs is personal, for at least one of them, but Joni keeps her mouth shut. She lets them finish explaining and then raises an eyebrow in question at her sister when they go silent.

"Sorry, I don't do the whole team thing. I'm sure you understand," Finn says with a pointed look at Charles. The other telepath is looking at her calmly, but Finn is so tense that it looks like she's vibrating.

"If you come with us, we can help teach you how to control your ability." Charles sounds so sincere, it actually plucks at heartstrings that Joni thought were long ago severed, but Finn only looks more murderous.

"Which ability?" Finn grits out. Joni watches Charles's eyes widen, and Erik leans forward. Finn continues before either of the men can say anything. "The telepathy? Can you teach me to keep the voices out? While teaching me to block out the emotions of every person around me? Oh, and let's not forget, will you also teach me to stop moving things with my mind whenever I lose a little bit of control? I don't need you to teach me anything, boy."

Joni bites down on her bottom lip to keep from laughing as Charles is smoothly moved out of the booth and held in a standing position next to the table as Finn slides out of the booth, and Finn turns to meet her eyes once she's standing. She knows that Finn is going off on her own again, and Joni nods once in acknowledgement. She knows she'll see her sister again, in either a couple of months or a couple of years. Charles is moved back into the booth as the diner door closes behind Finn, which means Finn has kept her telekinetic hold on him ever since she moved him out of the booth. As Joni looks at him, Charles looks a mixture of awed and confused. So Joni takes pity on him and explains.

"Finn is what you'd call psionic. She's telepathic, empathic, and telekinetic. It took a couple of decades, but she's got them all under control. She just doesn't like being around people," Joni drawls out.

"Just how old are you?" Erik asks her.

"It's rude to ask a lady her age." Joni grins even as she says it, because she's never really cared about certain forms of etiquette. "A few years over a hundred. Now, boys, this has been lovely but I'm afraid I can't help you either."

"You don't look a day over twenty," Erik says with a smile.

"Flattery won't change my mind." Charles seems to check back in, and Joni looks over at him as he prepares a question. She can see it in his eyes.

"You both have healing abilities?" Joni's met a few other mutants over the years, but answering this question has never been easy.

"Not exactly. Finn has no healing abilities whatsoever. She just doesn't have to worry about disease or aging. We're not sure why, but we think it's related to my ability."

"Which is?" Erik asks her.

"You first." Joni already knows that Charles is a telepath, and she's sure that's his only ability because he'd looked so shocked at hearing about Finn's numerous abilities.

"I'm afraid I'm quite simple," Erik says and props an elbow on the table. Joni watches as Erik moves his index finger in a circle, and the spoon sitting in Joni's forgotten coffee cup starts spinning. So he controls metal. That's very interesting, and she's sure that Erik's ability is far from simple.

"I've got you beat on the simple front. I can't die." She looks back and forth between the two men, watches them exchange a startled glance, and licks her lips. "I can't heal or anything like that. If you punch me in the face, I'll keep a black eye for as long as any human. If you kill me, I'll come back. No aging or sickness, but still basically human. So I'm no help to your cause."

"You can still fight with us," Erik says while holding her eyes.

"I'm not a fighter, but I wish you both the best of luck. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to finish my breakfast in peace." Erik inclines his head and moves out of the booth, and Joni settles back into the center of the seat. She would have gone back to finishing her soggy pancakes, but she can feel the two men still looking down at her.

"If you change your mind," Charles starts.

"I'm good at finding people. Take care of yourself, boys," Joni says and waves a little. The two men nod at her and then start to walk out of the diner, and she waits until the door closes behind them before finishing her breakfast. Such a strange morning.

 **[X]**

It became annoying very quickly. Whenever Joni's mind isn't focused on some task, she thinks of the two men from the diner. Remembers the sincere sound of Charles's voice, the barely-there curl of Erik's lips, and the way Finn had flinched when Charles mentioned the other mutant's name. No matter the cause, it isn't hers. It's not her fight, and she's never been much of a fighter. Just because she can't die doesn't mean she's going to fight someone else's battles, so why can't she get those two particular mutants out of her head?

"Watching you is giving me a headache. Are you still thinking about the diner boys?" a voice asks from behind her.

"I can't explain it, Kat. I just feel like something big is coming," Joni attempts to explain.

"You a precog now?" Joni's eyes roll, because the mixture of sarcasm and humor is clear in her closest friend's voice.

"Be serious for a moment. Have you heard anything?" Joni asks. She twists sideways in the old wingback chair and tilts her head back, and Kat is stretched out along the top of the chair. She's in her feline form, as Joni already expected, and she crosses her arms to resist the urge to pet the cat's soft-looking black fur.

"About your diner boys? No." Green eyes flick over at her, and Joni's eyes briefly glance up to watch Kat's tail lazily swish through the air. "Shaw though, I've heard of him. Remember hearing about him looking for powerful mutants. Rumor has it that he even has a teleporter."

"So he really is up to no good?" Joni asks uselessly. She already knows that he's up to no good. She can't explain exactly how she knows, but it's a feeling deep down in her gut and she trusts her instincts.

"For sure. Your diner boys don't stand a chance," Kat answers in a dry tone. Maybe they don't. It doesn't matter if they stand a chance or not, because it's not her fight.

"Probably not." Joni's tone is distracted, and Kat huffs before smoothly jumping down from the back of the chair. Four padded feet land on the wooden floor, and Joni lets her head fall back so that she's looking at everything upside down as Kat changes back into her human form.

"You need to stop thinking about them, Mack. Nothing good will come from it," Kat says as she walks into the kitchen. Kat's cabin isn't that big, so the living room and kitchen are basically the same room, and Joni's eyes watch Kat's long black hair sway against the pale expanse of her bare back.

"Consider the thoughts totally banished, Mac," Joni replies with a wide smile while still looking at everything upside-down.

"I mean it, Jonquil Verity McKenzie." Kat's standing in front of the open fridge, still completely naked, and Joni twists around as she fights off a pout after hearing her full name. She'll always love her mother, but the woman saddled her and her twin with some ridiculous names.

"I'll do my utmost best, Katerina Eva MacManus," Joni throws back since Kat hates her full name as well. As Kat's green eyes look at her in a glare, Joni hears the soft tone of Charles's voice and sees Erik's finger lazily circling in the air.

" _This really isn't going to end well."_

 **[X]**

By the time Joni gives in and goes looking, Charles and Erik have already recruited a few other mutants and have sadly lost a couple of them. One of them dead and the other with Shaw. The mutants have also left the CIA, so it takes Joni longer than she wanted to hunt them down. She had to call in favors and endure Kat's angry grumbling, but she's done it. She's found the home of Charles Xavier.

"Well, it's certainly bigger than the shack I called home," Joni says to herself as she looks up at the mansion. Because this is most definitely a mansion.

Joni's sunglasses have slipped down to the edge of her nose, so dark brown eyes are scanning her surroundings now that she's snuck past the front gate. Her long dark brown hair is in a sloppy bun, and a few dark pieces are sticking to her sweaty cheeks. In her tan shorts and threadbare blue button-up, along with her clunky brown boots, she probably looks like the help. A gardener, maybe.

" _Charles Xavier,"_ Joni thinks before she can change her mind and run for the hills. " _This is Joni McKenzie, from the Georgia diner. I thought I'd drop in and see if you still need help."_

Everything around Joni is quiet as she stands on the lush green lawn and looks at the mansion, and she shifts her weight to her left foot. Her hands raise to prop on her hips, and she feels sweat pooling at the base of her throat. It's a beautiful day, but she's still feeling nervous as she waits for a response. Surely he heard her? She's had plenty of practice at projecting her thoughts.

" _You are always welcome here, Joni."_

* * *

 **First chapter down! I'd love to know thoughts and I'd be happy to answer questions. Thank you for reading!**


	2. The First Death

**As promised, this chapter is a lot longer than the first chapter. I am going to do my best to keep future chapters at around this length. Like I said last time, this story will cover all of the movies. There's going to be a lot of drastic changes as well as small tweaks, but I've been carefully creating the outline and I'm pretty excited.**

* * *

 **CHAPTER TWO**  
 **THE FIRST DEATH**

"You are making a huge mistake," Joni says quietly.

"I'm sorry, what?" Charles asks and looks over at her.

It's been an...interesting day. Charles welcomed her into his home with a smile and then introduced her to the others, so she's spent most of her day surrounded by young mutants. They have so much potential, she respects Charles for wanting to teach them, but she's not a fan of the reason behind it. Seeing them together, smiling and free, had made something in her feel warm. Then she remembered why they were all together and felt that warmth fade into something much colder. It was a feeling that had settled into the pit of her stomach, and it's still there as Charles walks her through hallways to find her a room for the night.

"Teaching them to accept their abilities and control them is very noble, Charles. It's also sorely needed. My ability doesn't require control, it just _is_ , but I watched my sister suffer until she learned control. Do you know what other kind of suffering I've seen?"

Joni is stopped in the hallway now, with her shoulder blades pressing against the wall, and she tips her head back so she can meet Charles's eyes. He's in the middle of the hallway, facing her with his hands on his hips, and his eyes look bright in the dim hall. He looks like he wants to argue but also a little sad, and Joni lets her lips pull up at one corner.

"What kind?" Charles finally asks.

"The kind of suffering that only exists when there's war. Both during and after. You're training them for war, and there's no recovering from that. You'll ruin them." Joni wants to like Charles. He seems like an idealist, maybe even a little naive, and she's been around long enough to tell the bad guys from the good guys. Charles is _good,_ but he's on the wrong path.

"I'm not training them for a war. That is not what this is about," Charles says with an exhale that almost sounds like a laugh. Joni snorts and crosses her arms, and Charles shifts his weight forward but doesn't come closer. "I don't want them to fight in a war."

"That's where you're headed. You're too smart not to realize that." She's lived through wars. Never fought in them but was forced to see the aftermath. It ain't pretty.

"I won't let anything happen to them." He sounds sincere again, so earnest that he makes her want to believe, but she's too old and jaded for that shit now.

"There's always casualties in war. Just because you want to save them all doesn't mean you will." Believing in something is never enough.

"Then stay and fight with us. Help us." Joni is shaking her head before Charles even finishes speaking, because that's not who she is.

"I'm not a fighter." Charles dips his head in acceptance with an almost defeated look on his face, and Joni feels something in her chest twinge. Like Charles is plucking at her rusty heartstrings again. "But I'll stick around for the teaching bit. I've been around long enough to pick up a few things, and none of your kids can kill me so that's a plus. If you'll have me?"

"You're always welcome here, Joni." The pure _goodness_ of this man is going to be the death of her, possibly several deaths.

"We'll see if you're still saying that after putting up with me for a couple of days," Joni says and lets herself really smile.

"Always, Joni, always," Charles says with an equally bright smile. Oh, yeah. Joni's sensing multiple deaths in her future.

 **[X]**

"Summers, you gotta lighten up," Joni is saying across the lawn.

"If I lighten up, I'll blow you up," Alex replies with a quiet laugh as he walks with Joni to the bomb shelter.

"Won't kill me," is the last thing Charles hears before they move out of sight. His arms are crossed as he looks over at Erik, but the other man is still looking in the direction that Alex and Joni disappeared to.

"Do you trust her?" Erik asks without looking at him.

"Haven't we already discussed this?"

Joni showed up in front of his home four days ago, and she called out to his mind instead of knocking on the front door. It was the first time someone had so clearly called out to him telepathically, and it's something she must have learned to do with her sister. He let her into his home, introduced her to the others, and gave her a room for the night. She was gone when he woke up the next morning, and he truly believed that she'd decided to leave them after all. Especially after their conversation in the hallway. To his surprise, she'd shown up just after breakfast with a giant duffel bag and smiled as she said she'd be crashing with him for a while.

Charles had been happy to see her come back, as had the others, but Erik hadn't been as trusting. He didn't like that she'd been able to find them in the first place or that she seemed able to come and go as she pleased without alerting anyone, and it's something they've already discussed two nights of chess.

"You said her mind is shielded. How is that possible? What if she's lying about her abilities?" Erik turns to look at him after that, and Charles almost regrets telling Erik that he could no longer even sense Joni's mind. Almost, because he doesn't want to keep anything from his friend.

"Her sister is a telepath, and she has had many years to learn how to shield her mind. Why would she lie to us?" Erik raises a brow with a small upturn of his lips, and Charles resists the urge to sigh. "She is not working for Shaw."

"You've said yourself that you can no longer enter her mind, so how would you know?"

Charles wants to tell Erik that he believes Joni is here with them because she wants to help. He might not understand her motivations, but he does believe that much. He can't seem to forget the look in her dark eyes that first night, when she talked about suffering. She looks so young, possibly even younger than him, but she claims to be a hundred years old. Her age might not show in her youthful face, but it is reflected in her eyes. She doesn't want to help them fight, but she still wants to _help._ That's good enough for him.

"Tonight, the two of us will talk to her away from the others. We'll get the answers you seek, my friend."

 **[X]**

"I'm telling ya, Summers, I'm perfectly fine," Joni drawls as the two of them limp through hallways. It'd been dark when they finally left the bomb shelter, which means they're probably late for dinner.

"But your leg is-"

"Perfectly fine. Anyone ever tell you that you worry too much?" Joni has one arm wrapped around Alex's shoulders, but Joni is only five feet tall so Alex has to stoop over a pretty good bit in order to help her walk. At her question though, Alex comes to a halt and tips his head to look down at her.

"You should be mad at me, or afraid of me. Not trying to cheer me up," Alex says quietly. He looks so young and alone in that moment, and Joni holds her smile as she reaches up to pass a hand over his hair.

"Before she learned to control her telekinesis, me and my sister were having this argument. Her arms were waving as she yelled, and she accidentally threw me through the living room wall. Broken bones, cuts, bruises. Way worse than this little ol' thing on my leg, but I never got mad at her for it. Because it was an _accident._ Which is why I'm not mad at you, Summers. It was just an accident, and I'll be fine," Joni says as seriously as possible. She needs Alex to understand that she'll never get mad just because he can't fully control his ability yet. She's also the only one who can really help Alex train. Even with the neat little device that Hank made for him, Alex could still accidentally really kill someone. Joni doesn't have to worry about that, so she's been helping him learn how to hit a moving target. The main idea had been for her to always get out of the way, but she'd gotten tired and slipped up.

"You're not fine right now. You're slow." Joni catches a quick glimpse of a smile before Alex is scooping her up into his arms, like a bride about to be carried over the threshold, and Joni is laughing as she loosely wraps her arms around Alex's neck.

The two of them are still smiling and trading jabs like they've done for the past couple of days while training when they walk into the dining room, and Alex freezes. Everyone is sitting at the table, there's two empty plates set out for them, and several pairs of eyes look at where Joni's legs are hanging in the open air before sound erupts. She can feel Alex tensing as they all start asking questions, and she tightens her arms around his neck as if she can shield him.

"Quiet, everyone. Hank?" Charles's voice carries over everyone else's, and the sound in the room thankfully lowers. Hank reaches them first, and he goes straight to Joni's leg without sparing Alex a glance. Charles stands in front of Alex, blocking their view of the rest of the room, and he meets Alex's eyes directly. "What happened?"

"I didn't mean to-"

"It was an accident, Charles. Summers needs practice aiming at moving targets, and I didn't realize how tired I was. I didn't move in time, but I'm only lightly singed. I'll be perfectly fine," Joni says with an overly bright smile. Alex is already blaming himself enough. He doesn't need someone else lecturing him.

"Lightly singed? This is a third degree burn. It goes past the muscle. You need to go to a hospital, immediately," Hank says quickly.

"I'll be fine, Doc. I just want some food and then to go lay down. There's no need to worry," she says and looks away from Hank to Alex.

"Joni, it does look quite painful-"

"I have a very high threshold for pain, Charles." The truth is that most of her lower left leg is numb. The burn is so deep that she should have gone into a shock, but she's lived through worse. Survived worse. So she meets Charles's eyes and then carefully lets the walls in her mind fall.

" _Charles, I'm not going to lie and say that I'm pain-free. Alex is upset enough as it is though, and I am going to take care of my leg as soon as I get to my room. I am asking you, for Alex's sake, to let this go."_

" _I'm going to need an explanation."_ That seems fair, considering her charred leg, and she nods in acceptance to Charles while she puts her mental walls back up.

"Alex, take Joni back to her room. I'll bring her something to eat," Charles says quietly. He only gives Hank a stern look when the doctor tries to protest, and he smiles at Alex before telling him to hurry along before his food can get cold.

Alex is quiet as he carries her to her room, and he's so carefully gentle as he lays her down on her bed. When Joni catches him looking at her leg, where her jeans and skin have been burned away to show blackened flesh and muscle, she pulls on his wrist until he's sitting next to her hip.

"If anyone gives you shit for this, you tell me and I'll set them straight," Joni says as she squeezes both of his hands with hers. Alex reminds her so much of Finn when they were younger, so terrified of losing control and hurting someone.

"You don't have to be so nice to me," Alex nearly whispers. Joni releases one of his hands so she can reach up to comb her fingers through his hair, a gesture of comfort that she learned from her sister, and Alex's eyes close as she makes another sweep through his hair.

"No, I don't have to be. Last time I checked, I was free to do as I wanted though so you better get used to it."

"Yes, ma'am," Alex says with a quiet laugh. Their quiet moment is interrupted by a soft knock on her doorway, and they both move to see Charles standing just outside of her room with a tray of food in his hands.

"Sorry to interrupt," Charles says with a smile.

"I'm gonna go eat now. See you later, Joni," Alex says as he quickly gets to his feet.

"See you bright and early, Summers! We still got work to do!" Joni calls after his quickly retreating form. Charles had turned his head to watch him go, but he's facing her now and starting to walk into the room.

"Close the door behind you, please," she says before he's taken two full steps into the room. Charles raises a brow in question but still does as she asked, and Joni gets comfortable leaning against the headboard as Charles sets the tray on the little table next to the bed. When Charles just stands next to the bed looking down at her, Joni noticeably rolls her eyes and pats the bed next to her hip.

"You really should reconsider. A hospital-"

"A hospital can fix me up, and I might be lucky to only be horrifically scarred. I might also lose half my leg. Either way, I'll never walk right again. I've got a better plan." Joni reaches over to grab the plate of food and places it in her lap, and she happily starts cutting into her meatloaf.

"Would you care to elaborate on this plan?" Charles looks a mixture of exasperated and curious, and Joni smiles with puffed out cheeks before swallowing her food.

"After I eat. In the meantime, ask me whatever you want." She's seen Charles, and Erik, both watching her closely. She understands their worry, she did show up unannounced somewhere that they consider safe, and she can always choose not to answer.

"You're able to shield your mind."

"That doesn't sound like a question," she says around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"It's not a mutant ability, is it?" he clarifies. Joni shovels in a few more bites while she tries to think of how to answer that, and Charles waits patiently. After more than half of her food is gone, she reaches over for the glass of water on the tray and chugs some of it down.

"It's not an ability, no. It's more like a ton of willpower and years of training. Finn wanted to keep me safe, just in case there were other telepaths out there, so she taught me how to build a wall around my mind. That way no one can read my thoughts or force me to do anything. I think you're a stronger telepath than Finn, you can actually track mutants down, so you'd probably be able to break through if you wanted to."

"I don't want to," Charles says with a small smile.

"But you don't trust me, so I wouldn't blame you if you did smash my mental walls into little pieces." After that, she digs back into her food.

"I trust you," Charles says quickly. Joni just raises a brow, since she's currently eating, and Charles continues. "Erik has a few trust issues."

"Don't we all," Joni mumbles.

"I was actually going to ask if the two of us could talk to you tonight. Erik is worried that you might be, well, I don't want to offend you." He stops there and meets her eyes, and Joni waves a hand for him to continue. "Worried that you might be working for Shaw."

"That's a valid worry," she says as she scrapes up the last of her mashed potatoes.

"You're not offended?" Charles sounds and looks surprised, but Joni gets it. She's also pretty sure that all of this is personal for Erik, but it's personal for Charles as well since Erik is his friend. She just doesn't know what Shaw did to Erik, and it's none of her business.

"Not in the slightest. You can call him in here and then I'll let you go digging around in my brain. Best to get this squared away." Her food is gone, so she drains her glass of water and moves everything back onto the tray on the bedside table.

"I'll go get him now, and we'll be right back," Charles says as he stands up. He grabs the tray and swiftly leaves the room, and Joni lets out a quiet sigh as her head falls back against the headboard and her eyes close.

Joni hates fire. Hates it, fears it, has nightmares about it. She agreed to help Alex, volunteered to help him even, because no one else really could. She was even okay with all of the fire, because Alex had smiled as Joni joked with him and told him she wasn't afraid of him. Because she's not afraid of Alex. The smell of burning flesh and the searing pain as heat engulfs her, that she was afraid of. Alex only clipped her, a direct hit would have blown her leg completely off, but she pushed away her fear because Alex had looked panicked. She's lucky her nerve endings were fried or she'd be a big ball of tears. Even now though, she can feel the pain coming on stronger and stronger. If she starts screaming and loses it, Alex will never forgive himself. She can't have that.

"Joni? Are you alright, dear?" Charles's voice is soft as her bedroom door opens, and she smiles and wipes under her eyes before looking straight ahead.

"Don't go getting sweet on me, Charles. You're too young for me," Joni teases as she tries to ignore the pain in her left leg. Charles still looks worried but a little more at ease, and Erik is just looking down at her. "Straight to business then. You want to know if I'm working for Shaw? How can I prove to you that I'm not?"

"It's simple. Allow Charles into your mind. I want to know how you found us," Erik says while looking directly into her eyes. Joni's jaw clenches as her teeth grind together, and she presses her palms flat against the mattress so that she can sit up straight.

"I'll allow it, on one condition." Charles and Erik turn their heads to look at one another, and Joni can see the small subtle changes in their expressions since they're still standing at the foot of her bed.

"The condition?" Erik asks her as they both look at her.

"I had help, from other mutants, to find this place. I'll let you see what you want, but you won't mess with anyone that you see. They all know what you're doing, and none of them want to be a part of it. They want to be left alone," Joni says as seriously as possible. She likes the people in this mansion, but she's only known them for a few days. Her friends come first.

"You have our word, Joni. I won't even tell Erik your friends' names," Charles says and then looks over at Erik.

"That's fine with me," Erik says with continued eye contact. She misses his little half-smile. He looks so much nicer when he doesn't suspect her of being the enemy.

"Well, come on then, we don't have all night," Joni sighs and pats the bed next to her hip. Charles walks around the side of the bed and settles next to her right hip, and Erik stands against the side wall and crosses his arms as he looks at the two of them.

"Are you sure?" Charles asks her.

"Yes, dear, I'm sure," Joni says with a smile. When Charles just raises a brow at her with an equally small smile, Joni reaches out and grabs his wrist. She brings his hand up to her face, so that his palm is cupping her cheek and two fingers are pressing against her temple. "I'm trusting you not to go digging around in here. My suffering is my own, until I choose to share it. We both know you're strong enough to break my mental walls, but I'm trusting you anyway. I don't trust easily, but I'm trusting you. Don't let me down."

"Nice speech," Erik drawls.

"Thank you, for trusting me." Erik makes a quiet sound but doesn't say anything else, and Joni leans into Charles's hand and then closes her eyes as she lets her mental walls completely down. She's an open book.

" _You're thinking about the diner boys again," Kat says as she sits next to Joni at the kitchen table._

" _Shaw attacked the CIA. Of course I'm thinking about them," Joni replies and meets Kat's green eyes. She's wearing a robe, something simple that can be easily removed, and the robe parts as Kat reaches across the table to grab her hands._

" _What are you thinking?" Kat asks. Going by the look in her eyes, she already knows. They're both just waiting for Joni to say the words._

" _I want to help them," Joni admits as she tightens her grip on her best friend's hands._

" _I thought you weren't a fighter?" Kat's eyes are open and her smile is sad, and Joni hates worrying her. Especially after Kat welcomed her into her home._

" _I'm not going to help them fight, but I can still help them. I just have to find them first." The CIA was attacked, so there's no way that they would stay there. Not if it wasn't safe. Where would they go?_

" _Call your sister. Might as well get Operation: Find the Diner Boys started as soon as possible."_

"She's with her closest friend, another mutant that I've never seen with Shaw. They call us the diner boys," Charles tells Erik. He sounds amused, but Joni keeps her eyes closed as Charles watches her call her sister.

"Diner boys? I feel almost insulted," Erik says in nearly the same amused tone.

"She's on the phone with her sister now. The other woman we met, Finn."

" _I thought we had an agreement, Joni? To stay away from that kind of shit?" Finn asks. Kat raises a brow at Joni's exasperated expression, because her enhanced hearing means she can hear everything that Finn says._

" _No wars, no fighting, no exposure. I'm not trying to break that agreement. I just feel like I need to help them. Not by fighting, but I...I just need to do something." It's hard for Joni to explain, she doesn't really understand it herself, but she trusts her sister to understand. Even if they don't always see eye-to-eye, they always understand each other._

" _Are you calling in your last favor with me?" Finn finally asks._

" _Oh, I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to get more favors out of you," Joni says with a smile. Kat rolls her eyes before leaning back in her seat, and she raises an arm to motion with her hand for Joni to hurry up. "I need to talk to Val. Have you heard from her?"_

" _I haven't, but Mari mentioned her last week. Mari! Where's Val?!" Finn yells. Joni winces at the same time as Kat at the shrill sound of her sister yelling, and they both hear muffled cursing as Mari answers. Joni likes Mari, most of the time, but the other empath is definitely more Finn's friend than Joni's._

 _There's some muffled yelling over the line, Finn must have covered up the phone, and Joni drums her fingers against the kitchen table as she waits. Finally, Finn gives her a phone number. Joni writes it down quickly in a barely legible scrawl, lets her sister lecture her for ten straight minutes on being careful, and then hangs up with a sigh. There's no sympathy in Kat's expression, because Kat doesn't want her to do this either. This just might be the first time that Kat and Finn have ever agreed on anything._

" _I've made up my mind. I'm calling Val."_

"Her sister gave her the name of another mutant. Young, someone they both know and trust. She agreed to help and met Joni outside of the CIA," Charles reports.

" _You're really sure about this?" Val asks and looks nervously over her shoulder. Her long blonde hair is put up into a ball, and her hazel eyes are wide as she turns back to look at Joni and Kat. "You know, I can't hold it for too long. I've only been able to change my clothes too for about a year. You really want to call in your favor now? I'll have better control in a few years."_

" _I trust you, Val. Plus, you're the only one that can actually do this. I'd send in Kat, but I think people would notice a stray cat wandering around inside the CIA Headquarters," Joni says lightly. She's nervous as hell, but she can't let Val know that or her nerves will be wrecked too. Val needs to stay calm for this to work._

" _A stray cat? That's funny coming from the fossil who showed up on my doorstep with nothing but a smile and duffel of dirty clothes," Kat grumbles next to her. It makes Val smile, and the young blonde woman relaxes a little._

" _We're even after this, right?" Val asks and looks down into Joni's eyes._

" _I saved you from getting hit by a car and spent nine weeks in a hospital. You're breaking into the CIA. We'll totally be even after this," Joni promises._

" _Good, I don't like being in people's debt. Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr?" Joni nods in answer, and Val squares her shoulders with a determined look on her face. "I can do this."_

" _Yes, you can," Joni and Kat say at the same time. Val grins before her eyes close, and Joni watches as Val slowly disappears._

 _It's fascinating to watch. When Joni first met Val, she could only make certain parts of her body invisible at a time. A hand or a leg. Now her entire body is completely invisible, along with her clothes, and Joni sees a bush rattle as Val starts towards the large building. It's dark, late, so Val shouldn't have to worry about bumping into anyone. Joni relaxes back against a tree and tightly crosses her arms, and Kat drops to sit on the ground as they settle in to wait._

" _You never told me the story, about how you two met," Kat says quietly after a minute._

Joni can feel Charles hesitating, like he wants to skip ahead, because he wants to keep his word to her. He doesn't want to hear or see anything too personal. Joni thinks about skipping ahead, this part really isn't necessary, but she trusts Charles. So she keeps them both in the memory.

" _Val was only eleven. She froze in the middle of crossing the street because her hand went invisible, for the first time. She was in shock, so she didn't see the car headed straight for her. I pushed her out of the way. She got some scrapes from the asphalt. I got two broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a concussion."_

" _Didn't get lucky and die?" Kat asks as she starts running her fingers over a fallen leaf._

" _Nope. I was unconscious for nearly a week. By the time I came to, it was too late to die. I had to just deal with it. I told Val it wasn't a big deal, but she's the one who said that she owed me. After tonight, she doesn't have to worry about owing me anything." Joni had called Finn while she was still in the hospital, and Finn and Mari were the ones that helped Val. Helped her learn how to accept her new ability and how to control it._

" _What if she doesn't find anything?"_

" _We'll still be even." Joni looks down at Kat, and bright green eyes shine in the darkness as Kat looks blankly up at her. "If she doesn't find anything, I'll take it as a sign from the universe to give up."_

 _Kat just hums instead of replying, and they're both quiet as they wait. Joni loses track of time as they wait, and she tries to make sense of why she's going through all of this trouble. She's called in two favors, probably pissed off Mari, and is worrying Kat...for what? The diner boys? They're preparing for a war, whether they realize it or not, and Joni doesn't want anything to do with a war. With any war. That's her own personal rule, but she can't shake this feeling. That she needs to help Charles and Erik._

" _Did you two fall asleep with your eyes open?" Val asks. She's still invisible, so the sudden sound of her voice makes Joni jump. Val's still laughing quietly as she becomes visible again, and her full cheeks are flushed as she grins. There's a strap across her chest and a bag against her hip, and she nods when Joni just looks at her questioningly._

" _I, for one, would like to continue this somewhere a little safer. Any objections?" Kat asks as she flows to her feet._

" _I could use a nap. I couldn't sleep at all last night, and holding it for an hour has wiped me out," Val says and lets her shoulders slump._

" _I guess waiting for a bit longer won't kill me," Joni decides._

 _The walk back to Kat's car is silent, except for Val's muffled yawns and shuffling feet, and the younger woman immediately curls up in the backseat with the bag clutched to her chest. She's asleep before Kat even starts the car, and Joni relaxes in the passenger seat as they start towards Kat's cabin. It'll take them a little over two hours, but that's okay. Val needs the rest, and Joni can wait for a little longer._

 _After reaching Kat's cabin, Val seems more energized and bounces behind the two of them into the cabin. Kat goes straight to the fireplace, and Joni loses a little tension at the familiar smell of wood burning. Val blushes and lowers her eyes as Kat quickly strips, but Joni is used to Kat being naked and moves to sit on the floor in front of the fireplace instead. A moment later, a black cat stretches out across her lap so that she can lightly run her fingers over the soft black fur._

" _You two are so weird, and I've lived with Finn and Mari," Val huffs as she sits down across from Joni with the bag in her lap._

" _Name calling isn't nice," Kat says and tilts her head so that Joni can scratch behind her ears._

" _Finn and Mari are weird though," Joni counters._

" _I'll be sure to pass that along. Now, show us the goods." Joni isn't sure how Kat sounds the same in both her human and feline form, or how she can still sound so commanding even when she's a furball getting her ears scratched._

" _Right! I found these files in a secret filing cabinet in a hidden office, but I didn't look at them. Just saw the names and grabbed it," Val says and holds the bag out to Joni. Joni takes it, and she feels Kat slink off of her lap. When she looks up, Kat is lying across Val's thighs and happily purring as she's pet._

" _Secret filing cabinet in a hidden office, huh? Sounds super covert," Joni mumbles and unzips the bag. She pulls out a thick folder, and there's numbers written on the dark brown cover. Weird. She opens the thick folder, sees smaller cream colored folders inside, and skims the names written on the top tabs._

" _Those are the two names you told me to look for, plus some others." Joni looks over the unfamiliar names, but she doesn't look inside the files because she already knows what this is. Files on all the mutants that came to help Charles and Erik. Erik._

" _This is good, Val. Really good," Joni says as she pulls out Erik's file._

" _I checked the whole facility, but I didn't find anything else on any mutants. Just that, and they had it hidden pretty good," Val says._

 _Joni only looks at the first page of Erik's file. Sees his name, his picture, and that he has no known address. She tries not to make note of any of the other information, and she closes it before she can see something that she shouldn't. What she's doing, it's not about invading anyone's privacy. Charles and Erik both left when she asked them to and stayed away, and she respects them. So she's not going to go digging around in Erik's life, or what the CIA knows of it anyway. The next file she pulls out is on Charles, and she's just as careful as she looks at the information on the first page._

" _You're sure this is all they had on them?" Joni asks as she takes in the address in New York._

" _I'm sure. I checked everywhere. I don't like the thought of the government having any information on any mutant," Val says seriously._

" _Yeah, me neither." Joni's voice is quiet as she memorizes the address in West Chester, New York. She has no way of knowing if Charles went back to his family home, but she's got this feeling deep in her gut. She doesn't know Charles, not really, but she knows that he was sincere about wanting to help. So it would make sense for Charles to take them to his home, to a place where he probably felt they would be safe. Does he know that the CIA knew where his childhood home was?_

" _What are you going to do?" Kat asks. She sounds half asleep, but Joni knows better._

" _I'm going to take a vacation to New York and see if I can be of help," Joni says and tosses Charles's file into the fire. The three of them are quiet, lost in thoughts, as Joni slowly feeds each file into the fire until there's nothing left but ash._

"Her friend has the ability to turn invisible. She was able to get into the CIA, and she found files on us. On all of us," Charles says quietly.

"We need to-"

"The files have been destroyed. Joni was the only one who looked at them, but she didn't read any of the information. She only looked at my address and then burned all of the files. The CIA have nothing on us, Erik," Charles interrupts. Joni opens her eyes after she feels Charles leave her mind, but he keeps his hand on her cheek as her eyes struggle to open.

"You had our files but didn't read them?" Erik asks her. Joni looks away from Charles's concerned expression and over at Erik, and he mostly just looks confused as their eyes meet. Charles's hand leaves her cheek, and she almost feels cold without the small point of contact.

"It didn't seem right. I don't like invading people's privacy, so I didn't go snooping. I just wanted to figure out where you might have gone, and I got lucky," Joni explains and shrugs. "Now that we have that covered, can someone hand me my bag? Unless you still don't believe me?"

"She has no connection to Shaw, and I believe she did all of us a favor by destroying those files," Charles says even though Erik is still looking at her.

"Then it seems as if we are in your debt," Erik says with the half-smile she's been missing.

" _Do all of your friends owe you favors?"_ Charles thinks with amusement. Joni's mental walls are still down, but she's not in any hurry to build them back up. She's too tired and trusts Charles anyway.

"Absolutely not. Any government having info on any mutant is Capital-B Bad in my book. So, we okay?" Joni asks Erik. Instead of answering, Erik walks over to the closed doors of the closet and picks up her old duffel from its place on the floor in front of the closet. Her and Charles both watch Erik walk closer to the bed, and he stands next to Charles as he places her duffel next to her hip.

"Thank you, Joni." Erik's tone is sincere and the look on his face is serious, and Joni nods once.

"Now, what can we do for your leg?" Charles's question effectively breaks up her staring match with Erik, and she grins at both of them before reaching to the side to unzip her duffel.

"You? Nothing. Me? I've got it handled." She has to move her clothes around to get to the bottom corner, and she can feel their curious stares as her fingers touch against leather. Maybe she should try to explain a little more. "My ability is picky. If I break my arm and then die immediately afterwards, I'll revive and be completely healed. If too much time passes after I break my arm and I die, I'll revive and still have a broken arm. I don't know even know how the timeline thing works. I don't know how long I can wait to die before my injuries will be healed, but I do know that I have at least twenty-four hours. With something as serious as third degree burns on half my leg, I don't want to wait and chance not being able to heal at all. Plus, this really fucking hurts."

"Your plan is to die?" Charles asks. He looks so worried, which is sweet but totally unnecessary. Joni pulls out a leather case, and she lays it in her lap before pushing her duffel onto the floor.

"Only for a few hours. I always come back," she shrugs. Dying is never fun. It always hurts, always leaves her feeling heavy and disoriented when she comes back, but she wants to keep the bottom half of her left leg.

"How did you discover your ability?" Erik's question causes Joni to noticeably tense, and Charles blows out a breath before looking up at him.

"Erik, I really don't think-"

"No, Charles, it's alright. Even amongst our kind, it's a strange ability to have," Joni says quickly. Her and Finn have a few rules, and one of them is that they don't really talk about their pasts. Joni knew Kat for nearly three years before telling the woman who'd become her closest friend that she lived through the Civil War. She _wants_ to tell Charles and Erik though. Not the whole story but just enough for them to understand.

" _Erik trusts you. I trust you. You don't owe us anything."_ Charles is looking at her calmly, and Erik's look is curious but he's not prying. Maybe that's what makes it easier.

"I was twelve, it was a year after the end of the Civil War, and soldiers were still lost. Still trying to find their way home or just trying to figure out what to do. The South was...unstable doesn't even begin to cover it. Finn and I were living with our grandfather. He was out that day, Finn was off doing her own thing, so I was the only one in the house when a lost soldier walked inside."

" _Joni, you don't have to."_

"He was thin, probably starving, and looked sick. Everyone was struggling, so I couldn't offer him food. If I had, Finn or I would've gone without. I'd been raised to fight, so that's what I did. Starving and sick though, he was still stronger than me. He stabbed me in the stomach. He was still pulling things out of our cabinets as I bled out on the floor."

That's a pain she's never been able to forget. She'd been skinny and malnourished herself, but she hadn't felt truly weak until she was lying on the floor and bleeding out. Even now, she can remember the sound of cans rattling and her unsteady breathing loud in her ears.

"When I woke up a few hours later, the stab wound was gone and so was the soldier. Finn was home but our grandfather wasn't, and she told me not to worry. That everything was going to be okay. That I was going to be okay."

Finn had met up with their grandfather, and they'd walked inside to see the soldier stealing their little bit of food and belongings with her dead on the floor. Finn lost her temper and sent the man flying across the room, which caved in his skull. Finn had then cried at Joni's side while their grandfather dealt with the dead soldier, and he never once mentioned their abilities. Even after Joni literally came back from the dead and Finn killed a man with her brain, he continued to love them and never looked at them differently.

"I'm sorry you had to suffer that," Erik says quietly. When she looks up to meet his eyes this time, she sees more than sympathy. She sees _understanding._ Erik's seen his share of suffering too.

"It was a learning experience," Joni says and then looks straight ahead at Charles. She can tell he wants to say something, but he's holding back. Her mental walls are still down, so it's possible that he can tell how off-balance she feels.

"How can we help you now?" Charles asks her.

"Make sure no one comes in here. I'll be awake by tomorrow morning, but I don't want any of the kids to see me dead." Especially Alex. Joni doesn't say that part out loud, but she has a feeling that Charles knows anyway.

"How are you going to do it?" Erik asks her. Charles is uncomfortable, if his shifting posture and inability to meet her eyes is anything to go by, but Erik's calm as he waits for her to answer.

"A friend of mine is a nurse, and she was able to get me something. I won't lie to the two of you, it's going to hurt, but it's quick. It's not messy either, so that's a bonus," Joni says with a small smile. There have been times over the years when Joni was seriously injured but not quite at the fatal level or was just dying slowly, and Finn or whoever she was with had to act quickly. Finn usually just breaks her neck, it's the quickest and easiest way for her sister, but Joni's experienced the more messy kinds of death as well. Gunshots are the worst.

"What is it?" Charles still looks uncomfortable, but he meets her eyes when she looks up from the leather case in her lap. She even holds eye contact as she unzips it and finally opens it.

"Potassium chloride. Only lethal in large doses. It stops the heart," Joni explains. She looks down at the case, glances up to see Charles and Erik looking at the open case as well, and she looks back down as she taps her fingers against the sides of the case. There's a glass bottle filled with clear liquid and several plastic encased needles, and Joni pulls her shoulders back as she reaches for one of the needles. "You know, I'm kind of scared of needles."

"You're sure this is the only way?" Joni nods in answer to Charles's question, and her hands are surprisingly steady as she opens one of the needles and then carefully pulls out the glass bottle.

"It's the quickest and I've done it before."

" _The pain is getting worse. I can't hold on much longer,"_ Joni thinks as she prepares the shot. Her legs are starting to shake, there's a cold sweat soaking her hairline and causing her shirt to stick to her, and she wants to scream.

"Erik, help me lie her down," Charles says as he stands up. Erik takes the leather case from her lap, after the glass bottle is safely secured inside, and she holds the needle in her right hand as Erik places the leather case back inside her duffel.

"You really don't have to-"

"We take care of our own," Erik says quietly. Joni wants to thank him, but her throat feels a little tight and dry so she keeps quiet.

Since Joni is sitting on top of her blanket, Erik easily lifts her upper body while Charles carefully lifts her legs. They work in perfect sync to lay her back down on the bed, and she can feel the dry part of the blanket under her burned leg turning damp. She's still bleeding, leaking really, and her eyes clench shut as she pushes the back of her head against the pillow. Charles and Erik are still standing at her bedside when she opens her eyes, and she tries to smile up at them. She has a feeling that she doesn't succeed, because their worried expressions don't really change. Their eyebrows are even slightly furrowed in the same way.

"I'm going to be fine. See you both in the morning," Joni says and quickly looks away. It only takes a few moments for her to find a vein in the crook of her left elbow, and she locks her jaw as her vein burns from the drug entering her system. Her hand fumbles before she can place the empty needle on the bedside table, and she closes her eyes as she waits to die.

"See you in the morning, dear," is the last thing she hears.

* * *

 **Okay, just a quick couple of things to clear up any possible confusion.**

 **1: Most of the OCs in this chapter are not a big deal, with the exception of Joni. This story is about all the things that Joni goes through. That being said, she had a whole life before meeting Charles and Erik. So other OCs will pop up from time to time but only if I think bringing them in will help the plot.**

 **2: There will be NO love triangles. This is a Logan/OC story. Joni will not be romantically involved with any of the other X-Men, but she will become close friends with some of them.**

 **3: I really love Alex Summers/Havok. He's been one of my favorites since I was a little kid, and I am desperately trying to think of a way to keep him in the story. Because I love him and he's going to be like Joni's little brother.**

 **4: Thank you so much to everyone who's read so far! It really makes me want to write faster and inspires me, so I can't thank you enough.**

 **Special thank-you to my reviewers: Rayeslight334, DiscountJoanJett, WolvieLover.**


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